DeCaree Lewis wants to make a difference.
The teen from Indianapolis’ west side started making music videos as soon as he discovered YouTube. He created his own channel and quickly learned how to monetize his work and teach others how to do it, too. He also played for the Indy Steelers youth football team when he was younger and got involved with after-school programs at the Martin Luther King Community Center.
Those are some of the ways Lewis has learned to stay out of the way of the escalating violence gripping Indianapolis youth. The problem is personal for the Crispus Attucks teen. He’s lost friends to gun violence and wants to see kids his age put their firearms down.
But in order for that to happen, teens say they need help. They need to feel heard and understood. That’s why when Allison Luthe, a longtime mentor at the MLK Center, asked Lewis if he would help her with a project, he jumped at the chance.
Together, they created the Talking Guns Project — a short film that seeks to decrease youth gun violence by lending a voice to those most familiar with it.
“Growing up, it impacted my family and also my friends and my environment,” Lewis said. “I felt like me doing that would help out a little bit.”
Their interview subjects, all granted anonymity to speak freely about their experiences, were 10 young people from Indianapolis who were charged with a gun crime when they were teens. All of their charges came within the last five years, and Luthe said none have been arrested again since their participation in the film.
“I wanted it to give a chance for young people to speak directly to the police department and the juvenile court judge and maybe their probation officer,” Luthe said, “and be able to say things that you can’t really ever say to their face.”
Giving teens a voice
Luthe, who had been to several funerals for young people she worked with at the MLK Center, knew she wanted to use her research for an IU Indianapolis doctoral program to do something about gun violence.
But, she didn’t want to be the voice of it. She needed someone else to help produce, edit and direct the film. Someone relatable who other young people would open up to. Someone who knew how to translate how teens talk and who knew their way around social media. That’s where DeCaree came in.
“DeCaree, being a part of our research team, made it approachable,” Luthe said.
The team met their subjects in parks this summer. Lewis knew some of the teens personally and connected with others through ads the pair posted to social media.
Together, Luthe and Lewis crafted questions that sought to understand why their subjects were arrested, what the experience of being incarcerated was like and what they felt was needed to bring change in Indianapolis.
Some interviews were short and confirmed what the team had heard from other participants. Others were long with young people opening up for the first time about things they’d seldom been asked about before. Though they were offered gift cards, many of those involved said they were motivated to participate because they wanted to be part of a solution.
Consistently, Lewis and Luthe said they heard from the young people that they weren’t out to hurt someone. A majority of those interviewed were arrested for having a gun with them, Luthe said, but not necessarily for firing it. Many expressed that they carried guns out of fear — fear of being robbed, fear of other teens with guns and fear of being caught without a way to protect themselves.
“One thing I’ll say I learned is you can get a gun pulled on you for no reason,” Lewis said. “Even if you’re just walking or doing whatever you need to do to get past your day, someone else is out there that might be in a worse position.”
‘A peaceful generation’
Lewis and Luthe also asked the young people what they think is needed for things to get better.
Answers ranged from small acts of personal impact, like adults creating space to listen to young people and their needs, to larger structural change, such as a plan to fix up homes and create affordable housing. The participants also expressed a need for greater access to mental health resources and stronger support systems for young people.
Their interviews shined a light on a barrier teens in bad situations sometimes face when trying to make changes for the better. The positive influences around them, maybe trying to protect themselves, sometimes pull away at a time when teens need their help most.
“What young people actually want,” Lewis said, “is peace. Just a peaceful generation.”
Midway through production, Lewis and Luthe were struck with a stark reminder of the reality of their work. One of the teens they interviewed was shot and killed before he could see the team’s finished project.
Lewis and Luthe went to his funeral and took a couple of weeks off. A slide near the end of the film pays tribute to the teen.
What can be done to curb gun violence?
Now, Lewis and Luthe are taking their work directly to those who need it most.
That includes youth workers, probation officers, mentors, child welfare workers, elected officials and teens themselves. They extended a personal invitation to Mayor Joe Hogsett and the Office of Public Health and Safety to attend an upcoming screening.
They screened it first for teens, and two upcoming screenings targeted toward adults are already sold out. Lewis and Luthe plan to release the full short film on YouTube after the September showings and have even discussed ways to share a teaching guide or conversation kit to accompany the film.
They say they hope people take away from it that gun violence doesn’t have any one, specific solution, but everyone can help in small ways. Luthe recommends joining a neighborhood group or mentorship program — anything that puts an emphasis on relationship building.
Though she especially wants the message to be heard by teens and their families because community resources, such as the ones she works with at the MLK Center, only extend so far. Luthe worries about what happens in the off-hours when community centers are closed.
“It’s really easy to stay out of trouble from 9-2,” Luthe said, “But, what happens after 2 o’clock?”
For Lewis, the project has already impacted him in big ways. The teen says he’s noticed that people look at him differently now. They see him as a leader and know that he wants something different in life.
The high school sophomore is already thinking about future projects. He says he wants to document more of his neighborhood and use his talents to continue making films with a message. He’s looking into submitting the Talking Guns Project to festivals and envisions becoming a researcher or documentarian one day.
“I really just want to focus on making the world better with my projects,” he said.
Luthe and Lewis plan to publish their project on YouTube soon. You can follow Talking Guns Project on Facebook and Instagram for updates.
Mirror Indy reporter Carley Lanich covers early childhood and K-12 education. Contact her at carley.lanich@mirrorindy.org or follow her on X @carleylanich.
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